Paper short abstract:

Paper will examine conceptual resemblances and differences between various forms of communal, self governing and small scale economies from the past and present, which can be perceived as alternative or additional models to current globalised, centralised and financialised forms of reproduction.

Paper long abstract:

Contemporary social and theoretical responses to global economic crisis have emphasised the importance and potentials of self-governing, regional, communal, small-scale, ecologically responsible patterns of economic and social organisation. These views are partly based in social memory (ancient equity, commons, co-operatives, communes, 15o ...), but they are also part of anthropological theoretical heritage (Radcliffe-Brown, Mauss, Sahlins, Graeber etc).

Paper will examine conceptual resemblances and differences between various forms of communal, self governing and small scale economies from the past and present, which could be perceived as alternative or additional models to current globalised, nationalised, centralised, informational, financialised forms of production, exchange and consumption. 'Alternative models' are usually analysed by different academic disciplines or subfields, although their objectives and outcomes are many times similar. Are these models really additional to mainstream economics or basic for sustainable human and economic reproduction?